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Degradation of Oestrogen and an Oestrogen-like Compound in Chicken Faeces by Bacteria

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Abstract

Oestrogen-like compounds with biological activities are commonly chemical additives, which have been added into chicken feed for years. Large amount of oestrogen and oestrogen-like compounds were also found in chicken faeces. We believe that such compounds are incorporated into agricultural products as faeces are used in food production process as fertilizer, and they will influence human health. Biodegradation is an environment-friendly, economical way to reduce environmental disruption by oestrogen. In order to degrade oestrogen, we chose 11 bacterial strains that could exhibit high degradation activity against steroid compounds. Oestradiol (E2) and ethynyloestradiol (an artificial oestradiol-like compound; EE2) in chicken faeces were degraded by the bacteria and were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results show that a mixture of oestrogen-degrading bacteria exhibited higher rate of degradation than each of the 11 bacteria did individually. Therefore, we cultured the mixture of 11 bacteria with chicken faeces. An oestrogen-like compound found in chicken feed and faeces could be also degraded by the bacteria.

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Acknowledgements

This programme was financed by the National Key Research and Development Program [grant number 2017YFC0803803-4], the Educational Department of Jilin Province under [grant number 2016127] and the Development and Reform Commission of Jilin Province under [grant number 2016725].

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Author notes

  1. Miao Xu and Shining Han contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Science, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China

    Miao Xu, Shining Han, Junmei Liu, Guangming Xiong & Liquan Guo

  2. Key Laboratory of Grain and Oil Processing of Jilin Province, Jilin Business and Technology College, Changchun, People’s Republic of China

    Miao Xu, Ningning Lu, Dong Liu & Liquan Guo

  3. College of Biology and Agricultural Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Zhang

  4. Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology, University Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Guangming Xiong

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  1. Miao Xu
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  2. Shining Han
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  3. Ningning Lu
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  4. Xin Zhang
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  8. Liquan Guo
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Correspondence to Liquan Guo.

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Xu, M., Han, S., Lu, N. et al. Degradation of Oestrogen and an Oestrogen-like Compound in Chicken Faeces by Bacteria. Water Air Soil Pollut 229, 337 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-3984-x

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